Bento
by Meruhen Wind
Summary: Because Hyuuga branch house rations really suck. Implied NejiHina, with a somewhat OOC Neji.


Author's Note: Ah. Um. Yeah. After a half-year of doing squat, I'm up and writing again. For anyone who knows my previous uncompleted works, I'll try to update them sometime in the next week or so. I'll also try to answer any month-old reviews I didn't reply to before. Sorry about that (again).

Anyway. About this story: it's a semi-recycled plot because I have no creativity. When I was re-writing _It isn't Fated_, I had this sudden urge to edit it to make it more 'kiddy-like' and happier. Obviously, that didn't happen, but the rough draft for the happier _It isn't Fated_ somehow morphed into this. Although it was written months ago, only now is it finally posted (because I'm a complete loser with too many activities on my schedule.)

* * *

At the age of seven, Hyuuga Neji possessed a remarkable sense of independence, nonchalance, and resilience. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger was practically his motto. There was virtually nothing in the world that he complained about-not going to school, having Lee as a desk mate, or even being stuck looking after his six-year-old cousin after school. Hyuuga Neji simply _never _complained. 

"I hate my bento," he'd told Hinata once, looking uncharacteristically his age as he scrunched up his nose with passion.

Well, _almost _never.

"R-really? W-What's it like?" she had asked him wide-eyed, curious to see what it was that her older cousin detested.

"Here," Neji said bluntly, handing her a small lump of a gray, unknown and unidentified (Neji had long learned it was better that way) food.

Cautiously, Hinata placed it into her mouth before spitting it out a second later.

"Y-you eat this every day?" she asked, upset.

"It's branch house rations. It teaches us to be 'adaptable to any food available on a mission and to become more capable of serving the clan's needs.'"

"H-huh?"

"It means the main house is too lazy to make me a decent bento." Either that, or they wanted him to develop stomach problems. Whichever came first.

---

"Nii-san, you're going to school now, right?" Hinata asked.

"Yeah."

"U-um, here. I d-didn't really know how to make other stuff, but I think it turned out s-sorta well…" Hinata stuttered, giving him a basket.

Neji glanced inside the basket. Slightly lop-sided but perfectly edible onigiri were placed neatly inside. Without exaggerating, Neji could probably say it was the most carefully prepared meal he'd had in three years.

"Thanks," he said curtly, rushing out of the house.

--

By day four of the Hinata-planned diet, Neji felt safe in knowing that, thanks to his cousin, he would no longer eat branch house rations for lunch at school.

"U-um, Neji-niisan? Are my bentos o-okay?" Hinata asked that afternoon.

"Why?" Neji asked cautiously.

"I made one for my friend from the park. Tutor lets me go there once I finish my lessons, and my friend usually 'skips school' to play at the park, so I gave him some of my food," Hinata rambled, a mixture of quiet excitement and nervousness.

"Your friend?"

"H-his name is N-Naruto-kun," Hinata said with a smile, a tinge of red on her cheeks.

"And you gave _him_ a bento?" Neji asked coldly.

"H-he said th-thanks for the f-free food b-but he said it would h-have been better if it was ramen. A-are my bentos not good?"

"They could be better," Neji said after a short pause. "If you have enough time to finish your lessons early and play in the park, onigiri and that kind of stuff is pretty simple, come to think of it. Bentos might as well be made with more complicated stuff."

Without another word, Neji stalked off to do homework, leaving Hinata alone in the kitchen.

--

The next few days, the bento really was as complicated as a six-year-old could make it.

The fact that Hinata was repeatedly yawning and finishing her lessons hours after she should have was a fact Neji chose to ignore.

--

"Neji," Hiashi-sama scowled, staring at the seven-year-old boy impassively.

"Yes," he muttered, throat slightly dry. It wasn't the scowl that bothered him, really. He couldn't remember a time when his uncle had actually _smiled_, much less at _him_. It was the fact that he'd interrupted the silent routine of every morning.

Hyuuga Neji was not, to put it lightly, a morning person. At six thirty in the morning, the last thing he was equipped to deal with was a sudden order from the Hyuuga head. (How did Neji know it was an order? It always was. Hyuugas just didn't talk about the school day, or what happened in the last episode of that really great tv drama, or anything else that involved opening their mouths and saying something considerate or even remotely normal.)

"You're escorting Hinata to school today. Since she insists on being tardy to her studies when they are given to her in the comfort of her own home, she is to join you at the village school from now on."

"Yes," he repeated stiffly. The arm carrying the bento suddenly felt a lot heavier.

--

Trek. Trek. Trek.

Though it had never bothered the seven-year-old Hyuuga prodigy before, he suddenly noticed that the long walk to school from the isolated Hyuuga compound was very silent indeed. Finally, he stopped abruptly and turned around to make sure that his little cousin was, in fact, still keeping up with him, resisting the childish and very-un-Neji-like urge to squirm. Since when had silence been this awkward?

"I-is something wrong, Niisan?" Hinata asked, voice a little breathless.

Not only did Neji ruin her specialized training, apparently, but he had been an untactful idiot by walking almost twice as fast than Hinata's usual pace for a full half hour.

"I'm sorry," he said at last, in as serious a voice as he could muster.

"H-huh? W-what for, N-neji-niisan?" Hinata replied confusedly.

"It's my fault."

"W-what is?"

"Telling you to make a more complicated bento was the reason you kept on being late to your lessons, wasn't it? Why Hiashi-sama's making you come to the village school with me now. It's all my fault, isn't it?" he apologized impatiently.

"…I-I guess it is, Neji-niisan," Hinata agreed quietly.

--

Neji ignored the sudden jab he felt in his stomach. Of _course_ it was his fault. That was clear enough for even Hinata. It only made _sense_ for her to blame him.

"Y-you don't have to make me bento anymore, anyway. I hated the taste, after all," he scowled.

"Y-y-you did?"

"Yes."

"I-I'm sorry. I promise I'll t-try harder from now on."

--

"Huh?" _From now on?_

"O-on your bento tomorrow, w-what would you like?" Hinata asked timidly.

"You don't have to," Neji repeated slowly, making sure his six-year-old cousin understood her days of having to cook for him were over.

"I-I want to, th-though. E-especially now," Hinata insisted softly.

--

Not for the first time, Neji wondered if his cousin really _was_ mentally unfit to lead, the way the adults said.

--

"_I'm_ the reason you had to come to school. The reason why you're not being taught by the Hyuuga's top teacher anymore. The reason why you'll have to have teachers who might yell at you if you make a mistake or punish you in front of the class if you make a mistake. The reason why if you stutter, the other kids might laugh at you and the reason why you might get a deskmate you don't like," Neji explained harshly. "If you have an accident or if you get kidnapped in either the school or on the way home, there won't be any Hyuuga medics or nins to make it all better-that'll be my fault too." _And if you have any common sense at all, there's no need to make me a bento._

"B-but Neji-niisan will be there too, right? I-I'll try to do o-okay at school and I w-won't get into trouble so you w-won't worry about me-"

"Who said I'd be worried?" Neji interrupted coldly, hanging on to any seven-year-old dignity he had left. Who knew his cousin would go into a rant?

"O-oh. Th-that's good i-if you don't worry," Hinata smiled in trusting relief. "I get to go to school w-with Niisan now," she murmured softly, "so I'm glad I was l-late to class making your bento."

--

Neji stared at her for a second before he turned back around, deciding that not only was Hinata mentally unfit to lead but she was also verging on deluded.

--

The blush on his face, he decided, was out of embarrassment for having such a cousin.

As for the butterflies that exploded in his stomach as Hinata grabbed his hand?

…drat. No excuse handy there.

No need to worry. After all, there were 128 more school days and bentos left to be enjoyed this school year, and Hinata would be accompanying him from now on. He was sure he could think of a logical excuse-er, explanation-for the butterflies by then.

* * *

Author's Note: 

Er…yeah. Um…this will be a two-shot on Hinata's first week at school. It's already well into the school year because Hiashi is a jerk and enrolled Hinata on a whim. It always seemed rather strange to my Westerner mind that a Hyuuga heiress should go to the same village school as everyone else, so in my take on the Naruto universe, she's been home-schooled by some Hyuuga jounin until she's six.

Please read and review, just so I know I won't get squashed, eaten, or mauled for disappearing for so long. --


End file.
